** CUBA. 6100, Oct 5 at 0603 check, RHC English is S9+10 of open carrier/dead air here, while 6000 & 6060 are OK; and 6145 is OFF. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6133 approx., Oct 5 at 0605, pulse jamming at the rate of 4 per second against nothing, Cuban style. Same sound but two jammers are running on 5980 an hour ahead of R. Martí usage, slightly out of synch so the pulses do not align (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 17730, Oct 5 at 1432, RHC Spanish is instead dead air at S9+10. Sometime before 1400 I was not hearing 17730 at all when 17580 was in well; and now 17580 is off. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 17540, Oct 4 at 2137, NHK World Rádio Japão in Portuguese via WHRI to South America, S9+20 making it the SSOB and almost the OSOB except for the JBA carriers from Spain on 17715 & 17855. Standard denounce of NHK for using a USA relay to reach elsewhere, but refusing to broadcast any English TO North America.
News about 1.2 million Nissans being recalled --- what, again, more??
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/10/02/nissan-recalls-1-2-million-japan-vehicles-re-inspections/722375001/
``The problem does not affect Nissan vehicles sold outside Japan`` --- whew (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. 9630, Oct 5 at 0614, RNZI is missing: another sked change? Audiblizing weak Portuguese, i.e. 24-hour Rádio Aparecida, Brasil which gets totally blocked by NZ when on. I hurriedly check other RNZI frequencies; not on 11725, nor 7425, nor 9765, nor 9700 (but Romania in stilted German is now coming thru well at S9+10 to S6 fades). RNZI pops back on 9630 at *0620, JIP news/discussion. Some outage or attributable to their Thursday maintenance breaks? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. RF channel A-13 and virtual 13-2, Oct 4 at 2106 UT, OETA OKLA via KETA OKC, during `BBC World News America` goes to black; eventually OETA puts up its ``Technical Difficulties`` neat design slide à la classic test pattern with rings. BBC WNA finally pops back on at 2111. The audio comes back a bit before the video.
I suspect this was a solar transit outage, which happen this time of year (and in March) when satellite network feeder passes directly in front of Sun, overcoming puny satellite signal with inevitable solar noise. These are entirely predictable, just like eclipses, for those who bother. Stations should be prepared with a slide or even a video explaining what`s happening, but few (none?) bother. Let alone work around them with alternate feed routing or pre-recording.
I remember the good old days of analog satellite feeds, when one would see the video gradually fade dynamically into visible noise level, and then back out to clear, but with digital it`s all-or-nothing. It so happens that KETA repeats the BBC news one hour later on 13-1, so I`m watching then to see the 5 minutes missed or whether it`s a playback with the gap. No, no problem on this one, and altho some of the stories are the same, others seem to be different, so maybe it was really an updated cast on a different new feed. The 2200 UT airing used to be on one-hour delay, as was painfully obvious when during Breaking News. We`ll try to see what happen 24 hours later. Or, it could have been something else totally unrelated to STOs. I think OKC was getting heavy rain and flooding.
One station, radio, which warns listeners about STOs because it also feeds its own relays via satellite, is KNAU in Flagstaff AZ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Viz.:
Fall Solar Interference Returns
It's that time of year (and we don't mean Pledge Drive Lite). Each spring and fall our geosynchronous NPR satellite passes directly between KNAU and the sun. The orbital mechanics are a lot like the solar eclipse last month.
But as the sun passes into the line-of-sight of our satellite dish antenna, we temporarily lose our satellite connections: one with NPR and another one linking to our transmitters which are also satellite-delivered in Prescott, Page and Grand Canyon.
The outages will happen at about 11:16 [am MST = 1816 UT] from October 5th to the 8th. At their peak, these interruptions will start with deteriorating signal with a complete dropout lasting as long as 90 seconds. But many listeners won't hear a problem at all.
Here's a link to a site that explains it pretty well
Sun outages: Why your TV, radio and internet might drop out in the next fortnight
ABC Science By James Bullen Posted 20 March 2017 at 1:16 am
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-03-20/how-can-the-sun-mess-with-your-tv-and-radio/8363976
(KNAU Flagstaff AZ newsletter Sept 29 via DXLD)
** SAUDI ARABIA. 15380.03v, Oct 5 at 1341, BSKSA in Arabic with big frying-sound buzz, just like old times; what audio can be heard matches // 17615. 15380 is also wobbling slightly at S9. This is 500 kW, 310 degrees from Riyadh for CIRAF 39-N only, which means Turkey, but overkill power blasts right on USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SPAIN. 15520, Oct 4 at 2058, REE playing YL rock song in English. It would be a lot more helpful if they would broadcast some news in English! This is now the best frequency by far on the PL-880 with whip only, as 15390 is VP, and altho on the air, the 16m channels 17855 to us and 17715 are poor. By 2134 recheck, 15520 has become JBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. 15517, Oct 4 at 1333, JBA carrier, no doubt V of Tibet via TAJIKISTAN on signature split frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENNIING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1898 monitoring: confirmed for second week at new secret time, Wednesday October 4 at 2030 on WRMI 9955, fair, no jamming yet. Also confirmed Wed Oct 4 at 2100 on WBCQ, 7490, poor but modulating this week (as usual, the ``Q`` of the WBCQ singing ID immediately preceding is only half-there, cut off by automation in the middle of the letter.) At 2128 I find it on 7490.04 at S8-S9. Also confirmed Wed Oct 4 at 2330 on WBCQ, 9330.066v-CUSB, good. Next:
Thu 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Fri 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Sat 0630 HLR 6190-CUSB to WSW
Sat 1431 HLR 7265-CUSB to WSW
Sat 1930v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND
Sat 2130 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW [ex-2230]
Sat 2300 WRMI 11580 to NE
Sun 0200 WRMI 11580 to NE
Sun 0315v WA0RCR 1860-AM ND
Sun 1030 HLR 9485-CUSB to WSW
Sun 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Mon 0300v WBCQ 5130v Area 51 to WSW
Mon 0330 WRMI 9955 to SSE
Mon 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Tue 0030 WRMI 7730 to WNW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 9395 // 9455, Oct 5 at 0609, WRMI S9+10 with VOA News relay about Catalunya, Togo, etc., ``the tiny West African nation`` ---
TINY TRAP! Altho smaller than many African neighbors, Togo`s area is 21,000 square miles, about twice the size of Albania, or slightly smaller than West Virginia --- would either of those be called ``tiny`` by anyone Outside the tiny Beltway?? Well, yes, by plenty of ignorami.
VOA News is chopped off incomplete at 0612 right after the word ``continued`` but not part of ``to be continued``; dead air, ID and back to Oldies. I`m wondering to what extent this Oldies service is automated to plug in the VOA News at odd times without intervention? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17620-USB, Oct 5 at 1335, INTRUDERS, very poor 2-way in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report dispatched at 1733 UT October 5
